Spiritual Emergency

It is possible to undergo a profound crisis involving non-ordinary experiences and to perceive it as pathological or psychiatric when in fact it may be more accurately and beneficially defined as a spiritual emergency. -- Stanislav Grof

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Forms of Spiritual Emergency

A spiritual emergency may include more than one of the following elements. My own contained components of nearly all of the following.

  • Ego Death / Dark Night of the Soul

  • Kundalini Awakening

  • Shamanic Crisis

  • Episodes of Unitive Consciousness

  • Crisis of Psychic Opening

  • Past Life Experiences

  • Near Death Experiences

  • Possession States

  • Psychological Renewal Through the Central Archetype

    See also:
  • What Triggers Spiritual Emergency?
  • Wikipedia - Schizophrenia
  • Wikipedia - Psychosis
  • Schizophrenia - The Soul in Crisis
  • DSM-IV: Religious & Spiritual Problems

    Spiritual Emergency, Shamanism, Crisis, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, The Dark Night of the Soul, Kundalini, Past Life Experiences, Near Death Experiences, Possession States, DSM-IV, Psychological Renewal, Carl Jung, John Weir Perry, Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof, Maureen Roberts
    • Posted by Spiritual Emergency at 6:28 PM
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    About Me

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    Spiritual Emergency
    I am an individual who has undergone a transformative experience that in this culture and setting would be identified as psychosis or schizophrenic. Other cultures and settings have other names for the same experience: kundalini awakening, shamanism, mysticism, gnosis, the psychotic-visionary episode, the dark night of the soul, ego death, the alchemical process, positive disintegration, post traumatic stress disorder with psychotic features, spiritual emergency, etc. I was not on any form of spiritual path previous to that experience nor was I experimenting with ethnogens. I was simply an individual in a great deal of pain doing my best to get through it. That experience lasted approximately six weeks. I was guided through it by a mentor figure who appeared and served as my constant companion. Everything in this blog has been researched after the fact. I share it for the benefit of others who may have no framework for interpreting their own psycho-spiritual crisis.
    View my complete profile

    Links

    • Spiritual Emergency: New DSM IV Category
    • Spiritual Emergence Network [Australia]
    • Center for Psychological & Spiritual Health [USA]
    • Spiritual Crisis Network [UK]
    • Spiritual Emergence Service [Canada]
    • Spiritual Emergence Service [International]

    Table of Contents

  • Guidelines for Reading This Blog
  • What's Wrong With You?
  • Defining Spiritual Emergency
  • Forms of Spiritual Emergency
  • Spirituality & Trauma
  • Guidelines for Making it Through a Spiritual Emergency
  • Psychosis and Ego Collapse
  • A Spirituality That Transforms
  • Treatment or Therapy?
  • Personal Account: Spiritual Emergency
  • Visionary Experience in Myth & Ritual
  • Skeleton Woman [The Life/Death/Life Nature]
  • The Inner Apocalypse
  • In the Beginning
  • Mental Breakdown as Healing
  • Spiritual Emergence or Psychiatric Disorder?
  • Personal Account: Ricky Gee
  • What is the Soul?
  • Shamanism & Schizophrenia
  • Kundalini & The Black Queen
  • Personal Account: El Collie
  • Kali - The Divine Mother
  • Empowering Soul Through the Feminine
  • The Hero's Journey
  • The Major Archetypes
  • Schizophrenia & The Hero's Journey
  • The Hero With a Thousand Faces
  • Personal Account: Dr. David Lukoff
  • Archetypes & The Individuation Process
  • The Anima & The Animus
  • The Anima, Animus & Alchemy
  • The Coded Messages of "The Schizophrenic"
  • The Dark Mater of the Universe
  • Sophia: Greatest of Exiles
  • Personal Account: Odette Nightsky
  • Assistance in Spiritual Emergency
  • Guidelines for Family & Friends
  • Trauma & Recovery
  • Trauma & Spiritual Emergencies
  • The Sun at Midnight
  • Personal Account: Sally Clay
  • Spiritual Interventions in Psychotherapy
  • Soul Retrieval as Remembered Wholeness
  • The Archetype of Wholeness
  • The Gift of the Fellow Traveler
  • The Homecoming
  • Universally Speaking
  • The Gateless Gate
  • Related Links
  • A Peaceful Respite...
  • See also: Spiritual Recovery